Mumbai: Slain gangster Farid Tanasha's wife identifies killers in court

Farid Tanasha (inset) was shot at his home on his own turf in Tilak Nagar in 2010

Nearly seven years after alleged Chhota Rajan sharpshooter Farid Tanasha was shot dead in his Tilak Nagar residence's bedroom, his wife and key eyewitness, Reshma Tanasha (37), deposed before the court and identified the shooters on Friday.

Also read: 6 years after she saw him killed, gangster Farid Tanasha's wife untraceable

Tanasha was allegedly shot dead by two men at the behest of rival gangster Bharat Nepali in front of his wife and daughter on June 2, 2010.

After the trial began and the sessions court issued summons to her last August, Reshma was reported to have gone AWOL.

Confined himself to home
Yesterday, she told the court Tanasha worked for Rajan and had been jailed from 2005-08 in a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act case. After his acquittal, he immersed himself in social work and helped out members of the Tilak Nagar Meghana Cooperative Housing Society, which maintained the building he resided in, she said. "He rarely stepped outside the house owing to threats to his life."

Reshma, who is now based out of Delhi, said when he did venture of his residence, he was accompanied by six persons, including a driver and a gunman. She said he was home the night of his murder.

That fateful night, she said, Tanasha, she and their young daughter were in the bedroom of their 2BHK house. A cousin's mother-in-law was in the other bedroom, the domestic help in the hall and another member of the household, Arshiya, in the kitchen.

At 9.45 on June 6, 2010, my husband, our daughter and I watching TV in the bedroom and chatting. I was massaging his legs, when two boys barged into our bedroom. They opened fire on my husband," Reshma told the court. "The boys then ran away and I called up Zuber uncle (Tanasha's close aide Zuber Jamdar and witness in the case)."

She then recalled how Jamdar, who had left the house right before the killing, rushed Tanasha to the hospital, and her statement being recorded by the police later.

Picks out shooters
She said during an identification parade on August 8, 2010, at Taloja jail, she had identified her husband killers - Mohd Sakib Khan and Randhir Ashok Singh alias Nikhil - from the lot.

While recalling the chain of events, Reshma walked up to the dock, where Khan and Singh were standing, and identified them as the shooters.

After her statement was recorded, Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare asked for police protection for Reshma. Special Judge V V Patil granted permission for this.

Reshma was the 53rd witness whose statement was recorded in court. Her cross-examination by the defence has been scheduled for February 22.